Sunday, July 08, 2012

A Review of The MIkvah Scrolls by Steven G. Lightfoot

I rarely rate a book as unliked, but unfortunately I couldn't find anything to like about it. It was a fast read with large type and lots of white space and my first impression upon completion was that with some major editing this might make a passable couple of short stories. There is no novel here.

The characters were almost cartoonish to cliche with no depth. The author gave the reader no reason to care about these people. As an archaeologist the lead Dr. Cross, who was described as "more 'Indiana Jones' than scholorly professor" was setting a standard that the author did not come close to meeting. The archaeology was for the most part invisible.

As a Christian novel I found it to be very shallow. I have read supernatural books that were more realistic and convincing. The dialog did not enhance any way the archaeological reason for why we are supposed to be traveling with these people. A few places there was a distinct political message for our time, which is author's perogative, but in the couple of instances where this was expressed the opinion also did not advance the story. I was raised a Christian and am the son of preacher, but this part of the novel did not present itself well to me. I am sure that in certain Christian circles this might be a positive. If that is the case the rest of the storylines are probably in the way.

There was a Middle East political subplot in the story but was never develop in any fashion that would aide the moving forward of the plot line. I presume that this political subplot of danger was were we come into the story but it was no enhancement to make it interesting.

As I have said previously, this book could possibly shake out as a couple of short stories following heavy editing, and possibly an essay on how this authors understanding of his religious faith should play out in our national politics, but as a whole this book failed to work for me.

Sad that this review was negative as it was a Goodreads First Reads giveaway and the author took the time to autograph my free copy.

Addendum to Goodreads review:

About the only scene that was real was when Rev Proudman flashed back to his combat experience during the first Gulf War in Iraq. The author was a Marine officer during the same war. It is my opinion that had the author wrote about that experience as the subject of his novel, his writing may have been much better. To me it seemed that was the only thing that he really knows and understands. His secret new technology for archaeology work is neither new or unique as ground penetrating radar has been used for some time. Archaeologists even have satellite technology and imaging to aid with their digging. My advise for future book ideas would be for the author to hire, if he wishes to self-publish, an editor.